Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 7: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Thanks for the clear explanation Sodding. I have a good collection of baking equipment now so I don't feel a need to put it on my Christmas list but it might make a good gift for someone else.

Happy anniversary @ToDoListAddict!

I have a Kitchenaid hand mixer which I've always found adequate. In fact, I'll be using it shortly to make blueberry pancakes which I'll freeze in anticipation of DS returning, as they are a preferred breakfast item for him. I don't have a huge amount of counter space, which has always put me off a stand mixer.

The exception to the above rule is Oreos, which I would call a cookie, whereas other sandwich biscuits (custard creams etc) are biscuits. I think it is because they are American.

I make do with a simple handmixer as well and a big bowl for kneading in.

I have ordered the special protective shoe I need to wear.

@MissConductUS what would you call savoury biscuits to be eaten with cheese? I would agree that yours are cookies but most others are biscuits.

Those are crackers, like these:

Stoned Wheat Thins

Here biscuits are made with flour and shortening but no sugar, like these and are the starch course with some meals, like chicken and biscuits.

Rolled Biscuits

I think our linguistic usage used to be closer to yours, as the maker of popular supermarket cookies like Oreos is a company called Nabisco, which is a shortened version of "National Biscuit Company". And it is an American company.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabisco

Plätzchen looks like a biscuit to me, almost everything like that is a biscuit here rather than a cookie, its mainly chocolate chip cookies here and they are also classed as biscuits as well. Brötlen I get pictures that look like a bread roll if those are right that wouldn't be a biscuit or a cookie here, more like a pastry or cake. We have tea cakes which are a bit like bread rolls with raisins in - you eat toasted with butter which look the closest to the picture.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tea-cakes

DS told me that mega-floof rug survived the night and that he identified 3 spots on his floor that was big enough to take a rug that didn't have clutter on. He said spot 1 was a good spot, spot 3 was a useless spot and spot 2 was an OK but not great spot so he went with spot 1.

I don't think I'd have the room for a bigger stand mixer, but the one I've got is a compact one. It still required a bit of reshuffling of the surfaces though. I've never had any sort of electric whisk or baker. So far it's been a wooden spoon, a big fork, and a mixing bowl I got for 49p in a pound shop when I first moved into my own place honestly I feel like I've gone from a pony and trap to a Ferrari

Dinner is slow cooked sugary ham with the last of my dad's apples and onions, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, broccoli and peas, and THE lemon meringue pie for afters. We've just topped up the bird feeders and DH has chopped enough wood to last the week. I love Sundays.

I agree with the general biscuit/cookie consensus

What would you all call these beauties though?

Rug spots need to be just right, same as spots for comfy reading chairs.

It just started to rain.

We've just had a late Sunday lunch with roast chicken, long brocolli, roast potatoes and carrots with gravy and praline ice cream. DH gave me a coke with it he said so I could feel like I was at a restaurant.

I am envious of all this stand mixer talk. I want one but we don't have the surface space at the moment. However we have plans for an extension which will give us a kitchen of 4.5m wide by 7m long, so I plan to get one then.

I know what you mean about space, MissConductUS and Persisford. That's the problem with a lot of gadgets, they take up space but if you don't keep them out they don't get used. The current stand mixer lives on a counter in the utility room, under a row of cupboards where I keep all the baking items, so not too bad on convenience.
I hope this one lasts as well as your mum's Persiford. I inherited my food processor from my mum, she died 27 years ago and it was not new then, but still going strong.

Thank you @Nydj

Happy anniversary @ToDoListAddict!

Thank you @MissConductUS

Ooh I missed that! Happy anniversary @ToDoListAddict!!

Tricky it was always out and got a hammering when we were growing up - loads of cakes and bread, plus mum had a mincer attachment that I remember with a kind of terrified fascination!! I think they are very well made so fingers crossed for yours!

My only big appliance is my food processor which I use about 3x a week and lives in a cupboard but right at the front. I used to have an instant pot when I worked part time but since I have been full time I just haven’t used it so I have lent it to a friend.

Takeaway for supper here....

@ToDoListAddict - Have you done anything to mark the occasion?

Thank you @PersisFord 😊

@MissConductUS I've ordered in dinner (Italian) and just about to pop the champagne!
It's been a quiet, chilled out day - but good

That sounds lovely, many happy returns.

Ahh happy anniversary @ToDoListAddict!!

@ToDoListAddict - congratulations from me, too! I also missed it.

DH and I forgot our 34th in August, but we always do.

The cat was very pleased with her roast chicken, much better than her renal diet food. She sometimes can be found sitting by the oven seeing a mirage of a cooked chicken and howling to get this chicken mirage out of the oven.

DD said we should remove mega-floof rug from DS as rabbit could die. I presume she knows a good place for it to go like her room. Though rabbit is trying to nibble it.

DH has had a sleep and is now on the phone to France. I've spent a couple of hours trying to work out capital gains tax rules for DH for when / if property sale goes through. I've just found out he changed the amounts he pays in for things I set up to minimise his tax and he was so now I have to try and correct it.

Thanksgiving dinner became Sunday night dinner, as the ham that arrived with today’s shop was a cook-from-frozen (cheat’s) ham joint for 4. Our freezer is absolutely rammed, so we had to eat it today. We had it with MissConduct’s mac and cheese, spiced red cabbage, carrots, peas and broccoli. Oh my! I have never seen such a velvety cheese-laden sauce. It undulated out of the pan on to the macaroni. 🙈

DD2, who is not quite 2.5, and who has been a menace at meal times for the past few weeks, sat nicely at the dinner table today and ate with her knife and fork like a little angel.

DH is claiming victory as it was his idea to give her an adult plate like ours, instead of one of the plastic sectioned off toddler things she's been using

Oh my! I have never seen such a velvety cheese-laden sauce. It undulated out of the pan on to the macaroni.

Happy Thanksgiving Sodding! My goodness, this is almost too exciting for this thread. What cheese or cheeses did you use? Was it well received by the hungry hordes?

There's lots of boring news from the Hudson Highlands. I was making blueberry pancakes under close cat supervision when our landscaping company came to do the final leaf blow and blow out the gutters. Between the gas petrol-powered leaf blowers outside and the bloke stomping around on the roof the cats were certain we were under terrorist attack and teleported to another dimension. We probably won't see them for hours. I had two blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup for lunch. Do you all get real maple syrup in the UK?

DD texted earlier to say that she's experiencing pain under her left ribs and has consulted Dr Google, who has suggested a number of possible causes, most of them fatal. DH has gone to pick her up from work and will take her to the urgent care office for an exam. They may do blood work and some radiography. I suspect it's work and uni related stress.

The mac ‘n’ cheese was well received MissConduct.

Sorry to hear about your daughter, MissC. I hope it’s nothing sinister. 🤞

Miss Let's hope it is only stress for your DD!

Back to bakery: so we've established Plätzchen = biscuit
(cracker = Cracker bc. they came from the US with that brandname)

We always have poffertjes (Dutch) at the christmas market - as there are none this year, we'll try to make them at home.